1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a striker for locking a glove box and process for forming the same. More particularly, the novel striker, which engages with a latching device to lock the glove box being located in front of a passenger seat for storing the miscellaneous in a vehicle, is integrally formed with a latching loop and bracket and a manufacturing process of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, a vehicle has become an integral part of daily life. Moreover, the vehicle becomes not only an unlimited transportation means, but also an accepted means of additional independent living space. In this point of view, providing many devices that comforts the passengers is as important as providing technology related to safety and smoothness of ridings.
The convenient devices provided in a vehicle are the cigarette lighter for lighting cigarette, ash tray, cup holder for holding drinks or cups, console box or glove box for storing miscellaneous being needed to the driver or passenger such as a flash light, gloves, cassette tapes, insurance card, vehicle registration or road maps. There are more convenient devices available for installation depending on the driver""s interest and hobby.
Among these convenient devices, a typical one is the glove box being provided in front of a passenger seat for storing the miscellaneous. The glove box door is hinged and attached to an interior wall of crash pad or dashboard, and the door is lockable by the striker and latching devise.
As depicted in FIGS. 7a and 7b, a conventional striker (100) comprises a bracket (101) being attached to the interior wall of crash pad or dashboard, a latching loop (102) being fixed to the bracket (101) for locking the glove box. The latching loop (102) is welded to six protruding parts (101a) being formed on the bracket (101).
However, a manufacturing process of conventional striker requires a blanking process for punching out a prototype bracket from a metal plate, a bending process for bending the flanges of bracket. Simultaneously, a latching loop is provided through a separate process as follows: a cutting process is performed for cutting a rod in a predetermined length. A bending process is performed for forming the loop shape. Finally, a welding process combines the bracket and latching loop together. The conventional manufacturing process is relatively complicated due to separated manufacturing process and welding process for the bracket and latching loop.
Therefore, the conventional manufacturing process has disadvantages that: because of the separated manufacturing process and welding process, it requires relatively many production facilities and manpower. Specially, it is very hard to accurately control the final dimension of strikers during a welding process. Consequently, there are many default produced in the final strikers, which do not have acceptable tolerance of dimensions. Due to the inconsistent dimensions, the default strikers are mismatched with other related parts in the assembly line. It costly requires more labors to correct mismatching problems. Therefore, the production cost would be highly increased.
An improved striker for locking a glove box of the present invention is designed to overcome the disadvantages mentioned in the previous paragraph by considering the conventional problems.
An object of the present invention is to provide a glove box striker that a latching loop is integrally formed with a bracket by using a series automatic pressing or punching process and the process for forming the same.
To achieve the forgoing object, an improved striker for locking a glove box comprises a bracket having at least two fastener holes, which is attached on the interior wall of crash pad or dashboard by installing fasteners through fastener holes, a U-shaped latching loop formed integrally with the bracket and forwardly bent-up with a predetermined angle against the bracket and a noise damping materials being coated on the latching loop by ejecting synthetic resins.
According to the present invention, it is preferred to form an annular section of latching loop for a hollow center by rounding up process.
Further, to achieve the above object of the present invention, a process for forming a striker of glove box comprises: setting process for setting a basic sheet metal having a certain thickness, width and length of rectangular shape on a processing machinery; first notching process for punching out fastener holes with a certain preset diameter and removing a first portion (area) of inner loop to provide a latching space by punching out the basic sheet metal; second notching process for removing a second part (area) of outer loop substantially to form a prototype U-shaped latching loop by punching out the basic sheet metal; trimming process for rounding the edges of prototype latching loop; bending process for bending the latching loop upward with a predetermined angle against a bracket; third notching process for removing a third part of multi-bracket supporting area to separate an individual bracket by punching out the basic sheet metal; and finishing process for coating noise damping materials on the entire or partial area of latching loop by ejecting synthetic resins.
According to the present invention, it is preferred to round the rough cutting edges of prototype latching loop.
Alternatively, it is preferred to forge the rough cutting edges of prototype latching loop to form an octagonal section.
According to the present invention, it is preferred to include a restriking process for obtaining a final shape of latching loop to have the acceptable dimensions within a tolerance subsequent to the rounding process or forging process.
According to the present invention, it is preferred to include a curling process for rounding up the prototype latching loop to form an annular section.
According to the present invention, it is preferred to include a restriking process for obtaining an annular section of latching loop having acceptable dimensions within a tolerance subsequent to the curling process.
Accordingly, a manufacturing process of striker being integrally formed with the latching loop and bracket is simpler than that of conventional striker. Therefore, the navel striker has not only compatibility by reducing production cost, but also reliability by improving the noise damping for the locking device.